Boston, MA–As part of a series about Americans’ response to the H1N1 flu outbreak, the Harvard Opinion Research Program at the Harvard School of Public Health is releasing a national poll that focuses on Americans’ views and concerns about the potential for a more severe outbreak of Influenza A (H1N1) in the fall or winter. The polling was done June 22-28, 2009.

Approximately six in ten Americans (59%) believe it is very or somewhat likely that there will be widespread cases of Influenza A (H1N1) with people getting very sick this coming fall or winter. Parents are more likely than people without children to believe this will occur, with roughly two thirds of parents (65%) saying it is very or somewhat likely compared to 56% of people without children.

“These results suggest Americans are likely to support public health officials in prioritizing preparations for the possibility of a serious H1N1 outbreak in the fall or winter,” said Robert J. Blendon, Professor of Health Policy and Political Analysis at the Harvard School of Public Health.

The New Mexico Department of Health is planning for influenza mass vaccination clinics that will take place this fall to protect people against the novel H1N1 strain of influenza (earlier referred to as swine flu) and against seasonal influenza. The Department of Health is also ensuring that the State and its local partners are prepared to deal with the possibility of an increase in severity of H1N1 influenza cases, including a potential pandemic in New Mexico.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is advising states that vaccine companies are working on producing an H1N1 vaccination that may require people get two shots in addition to the seasonal influenza vaccination. The agency has not told states when to expect vaccines yet. CDC plans to cover the cost of vaccines for all states.

“We are reaching out to our healthcare and education partners throughout the state to make sure we can immunize New Mexicans from H1N1 and seasonal flu,” said Health Secretary Alfredo Vigil, MD. “We recognize that we’re asking the public to take the time to protect themselves from two different strains of influenza this year. We are trying to plan clinics statewide that are convenient for people.”

Danish scientists have traced a new strain of H1N1 influenza, which has shown resistance to the foremost swine flu medication, Tamiflu.

In a Monday statement issued by Denmark’s State Serum Institute, researchers at the center maintained that they anticipated resistance from the virulent virus due to its high mutability powers.

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However, the statement goes on to unwind worries about the newly-discovered case, saying that the carrier of the new strain has almost recovered from the illness.

Earlier in June, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) had raised the swine flu pandemic alert level to 6, the highest level for governments, and had asked people across the globe to remain vigilant for symptoms of the infection.

So far 311 people have lost their lives to the disease, which entails harsh respiratory problems, high body temperature, and other severe flu-like indications.

The latest WHO figures put the number of the people with the viral contagion at over 70,000 infections in 113 countries.

The latest H1N1 statistics reveal that the contagion’s death toll has outnumbered fatalities caused by the avian flu in recent years.

Experts warn that the latest pandemic, unprecedented in over four decades, could bring about more losses of lives before a proper way to fight the pathogen is determined.

The French government will spend nearly a billion euros on a mandatory flu vaccination this autumn, a French website reported on May 30. “France is preparing a battle plan without precedent for this autumn, including an obligatory vaccination campaign for all French of more than 3 months of age,” writes Marie-Christine Tabet for Le Journal du Dimanche. “According to our information, the State will place an order for 100 million units of influenza vaccine from three laboratories (GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi and Novartis).”

Hundreds objected to the mandated flu vaccinations in New Jersey.

On May 15, Bloomberg reported that France, the UK, Belgium and Finland agreed to buy about 158 million shots from London-based Glaxo and Baxter International Inc.

According to the World Health Organization at the United Nations, production of up to 4.9 billion doses of a swine flu vaccine a year would be possible.

“A ‘pilot vaccine’ is being developed under the supervision of the EU. However, some conspiracy theories that are spreading just as fast as the virus have already dismissed the hysteria over the virus as a malevolent plot orchestrated by pharmaceutical companies in order to cash in on people’s fear. One in particular believes that the strain has been purposely engineered so companies producing vaccines can cash in,” Russia Today opined on May 1.

In February Baxter confirmed that it released contaminated flu virus material from a plant in Austria. The contaminated product, a mix of H3N2 seasonal flu viruses and unlabeled H5N1 viruses, was supplied to an Austrian research company. The Austrian firm, Avir Green Hills Biotechnology, then sent portions of it to sub-contractors in the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Germany, the Toronto Sun reported.

Anne Laude, co-director of the Institute of Health at the Université Paris Descartes, said “nobody would have the right, except in the case of a medical counter-indication, to refuse a vaccination.”

Last month the Obama administration announced it was considering whether to trigger mass production of swine-flu vaccine, which could affect the bottom lines of big vaccine makers as well as public health, according to the Wall Street Journal. Obama requested a $1.5 billion emergency appropriation to deal with swine flu, including development of a vaccine.

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The Obama fall vaccination program, according to the Washington Post, would entail giving Americans three flu shots — one to combat annual seasonal influenza and two targeted at the H1N1 flu virus. “If enacted, the multibillion-dollar effort would represent the first time that top federal health officials have asked Americans to get more than one flu vaccine in a year, raising serious challenges concerning production, distribution and the ability to track potentially severe side effects.”

In 1976, following a small swine flu outbreak at the Fort Dix Army Base in New Jersey, the federal government ordered a nationwide vaccination program. “Mass vaccinations started in October, but within weeks reports started coming in of people developing Guillain-Barré syndrome, a paralyzing nerve disease, right after taking the shot. Within two months, 500 people were affected, and more than 30 died. Amid a rising uproar and growing public reluctance to risk the shot, federal officials abruptly canceled the program Dec. 16.,” writes Tony Long for Wired.

“The vaccine manufacturers had anticipated the potential for serious side effects from the vaccines they manufactured and had insisted on indemnification by the federal government before releasing pandemic vaccine. Harmed vaccinees and their families sued the federal government and eventually received millions of dollars in damages. Sencer was let go as CDC director. Many people faulted him for his dogged pursuit of universal influenza vaccination,” notes the Suburban Emergency Management Project.

During the swine flu hysteria earlier this year, the corporate media made the case for mass vaccination. “Time Magazine’s coverage of the swine flu scare has a noticeable subplot — preparing Americans for draconian measures to combat a future pandemic as well as forcing them to accept the idea of mandatory vaccinations,” wrote Paul Joseph Watson on April 28. According to Time, the government “may soon have to consider whether to institute draconian measures to combat the disease.”

New Jersey was the first state to require flu shots for young schoolchildren. “It was part of a new policy requiring a total of four additional immunizations for schoolchildren over the objections of some parents who worry about possible risks from vaccinations,” the New York Times reported on January 2, 2009. An advisory panel for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that all children ages 6 months to 18 years should receive an annual flu shot.

Hundreds of concerned parents participated in demonstrations outside the New Jersey Statehouse on October 16, 2008, in protest of the State’s decision to mandate flu vaccinations for young children.

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons considers mandatory vaccines a violation of the medical ethic of informed consent.

Swine flu’s potential to reconfigure its genetic material and become more deadly is a “major concern,” said Anne Schuchat, a scientist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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The prospect of what is called reassortment is keeping Schuchat and health officials worldwide on the alert even as the newest outbreak has proved itself to be relatively mild outside Mexico, where 19 of the 20 confirmed deaths were reported. Human cases of the disease have been confirmed in 30 U.S. states and 19 countries, according to the CDC and the World Health Organization, a global agency that may declare a pandemic.

Canadian health officials yesterday reported the world’s first case of the swine flu jumping to pigs from a human, probably after a farm worker in the province of Alberta became ill during a trip to Mexico. Additional gene reassortment has the potential to change the makeup of the disease, Schuchat said today in a conference call.

“The prospect of reassortment is always there with influenza,” Schuchat said in the conference call today. The agency is especially concerned that the new flu, already a risk of causing sickness and death worldwide, may mutate in human or pig populations, she said.

D. H. Williams of the Daily Newscaster links to a YouTube video showing large numbers of federal troops in Mexico City deployed to stop protests against the government in Mexico City.

“George a citizen journalist from California has been told by Mexican nationals that federal troops have been used to stop protests of the government during the influenza or ‘The Panic’ as it is called by locals,” writes Williams. “Filming from ‘Panic Central’ George captures footage of a company strength unit of Mexican Federales deploying for an operation among the civilian population.”

Here is the video:

The troops do not appear to be armed with rifles or heavy military weaponry indicating this is an operational drill. Such an operation could be used to train the public to the presence of federal troops on the ground and an opportunity for the troops themselves to be tested and evaluated.

In Mexico, at least, the virus psyop (psychological operation) has taken on a military dimension as the government prepares the people to accept the presence of soldiers on the street. It is also using the bogus virus crisis to make sure they don’t protest. Of course, the Mexican people are more or less acclimated to heavily armed troops and federales on the streets after months of brutal warfare between the government and the Wall Street drug cartels that has resulted in the murder of thousands of innocent Mexicans.

It is only a matter of time before this psyop migrates to the United States and other countries. Mexico is merely the beta test.

It remains to be seen if Americans will sheepishly accept the military closing down the First Amendment and the right of assembly. If they are sufficiently brainwashed they probably will not gather in public, afraid of catching a virus now demonstrated to be no more prevalent than the common cold.

People with HIV are at high risk from the new flu strain that the World Health Organisation said is on the verge of a pandemic, the WHO said on Saturday.

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The United Nations agency said people with immunodeficiency diseases — including the AIDS virus — will most likely be vulnerable to health complications from the H1N1 strain, as they are from regular seasonal flu, which kills between 250,000 and 500,000 people a year.

HIV and the new flu strain could also mix together in a dangerous way, as has occurred with HIV and tuberculosis, the WHO said in guidance for health workers on its website.

“Although there are inadequate data to predict the impact of a possible human influenza pandemic on HIV-affected populations, interactions between HIV/AIDS and A(H1N1) influenza could be significant,” it said.

“HIV-infected persons should be considered as a high risk and a priority population for preventive and therapeutic strategies against influenza including emerging influenza A(H1N1) virus infection,” it said.